World Sleep Day just passed by on 16th March (did you even know a day for sleep existed?!), and like most Singaporeans, I spent it staying up late and not getting enough sleep. If you feel like you’re never getting enough sleep, you’re not alone! A study in 2014concluded that Singapore is the 3rd most sleep-deprived city in the world, with an average of just six and a half hours of sleep a night, far less than the recommended daily 7-9 hours. In fact, experts say that as a whole, the world is experiencing a “sleep-loss epidemic”, where a majority of adults are not getting sufficient sleep. This is alarming as many large-scale studies have strongly linked lack of sleep with health conditions like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, obesity and poor mental health.

With all this in mind, this made our recent invitation to the launch of kikki.K’s More Sleep Please collection even more timely. The Collection, consisting of a combination of homewares and accessories, is aptly named More Sleep Please after kikki.K founder Kristina Karlsson’s dedication to equipping people with the tools need to get a better-quality sleep! As founder and creative director of kikki.K, Kristina is no stranger to spending many a late night working and sleeping poorly. However, she is well-aware of the numerous health risks associated with sleep deficiency and hopes to inspire others to adopt better sleep habits with this new range.

Held at The Warehouse Hotel, the exclusive event consisted of a Yoga Nidra (Sleep Yoga) session, an intimate discussion over dinner with Kristina on the perfect routines for ensuring a good night’s sleep, and finally an overnight stay in the hotel to conclude the evening.

We kicked off the evening with 30 minutes of Sleep Yoga with TheYogaMandala’s Jessica Sinclair. It was a form of yoga that I’ve never even heard of before, so I was excited to try it! Jessica first had us lie down, then led us through slowly releasing tension in all of our muscle groups while regulating our breathing to enter a meditative state. (Don’t tell anyone, but I nearly fell asleep!)

Next up was the dinner, where over some delicious Asian-fusion dishes, we discussed each of our bad and good sleeping habits, as well as shared the best tips for getting to sleep after a long day!

Here are the top 5 sleep tips shared that I found particularly useful:

Exercise

Other than keeping you fit and healthy, research shows that regular exercise helps to regulate your circadian rhythm. So not only will it be easier for you to fall asleep, you will also find it easier to wake up and stay alert and focused during the day. If you don’t have time to go to the gym for a full workout, just doing a 5-minute cardio workout or yoga stretches in your room is perfectly fine!

Meditate

Widely touted by health gurus everywhere, meditation is not a kooky chanting practice that tourists try on vacation. It actually has a whole range of proven health benefits such as helping to calm the mind and body, combatting stress and improving sleep! If you’re a beginner to this practice, no worries! Even doing small things like surrounding yourself with things you like and taking slow, measured breaths for 3 minutes with your eyes closed can work wonders for your stress levels. Even if you’re really busy, just doing this once or twice a week is enough to let your mind and body decompress.

Write it down!

You may think that you have it all in your head, but sometimes old-school is the way to go when it comes to memory. Penning down your thoughts and goals for the day ahead each evening not only helps you be more organised, the action of writing things down helps calm anxiety by letting your brain believe that you have already done something to prepare for the next day. Plus, with a physical note you’re now far less likely to forget anything!

Allow the Light in

The amount of light we’re exposed to, and the timing of such exposure can help us reset our circadian rhythms to sync with the external 24-hour clock. This is because our bodies are naturally built to stop the production of melatonin (which regulates our sleep cycles) when exposed to light. So, if you want to wake with the sun (literally), try opening the curtains right after waking, or even step outside into the fresh air for an invigorating wake-up call!

Go Offline Earlier

If you’re like me, a phone screen is the first and last thing you see every day. However, it’s been proven that blue light from electronic devices like phone and laptops inhibits melatonin production more than any other wavelength of light, thus making it harder for us to go to sleep! Other than blue light, these devices also inhibit sleep by providing cognitive stimulation. Simply put, your brain is too wired to go to sleep. If you’re watching something exciting or even indulging in some Facebook stalking, your body could even be producing the hormone cortisol, which is basically the opposite of melatonin and responsible for waking you up. The best solution for this is to spend the last 30 minutes of your day before bed offline. You could spend that time reading a book or preparing for the next day! If you really can’t put your phone down (I feel your pain, I truly do), switching on your phone’s blue light filter will help reduce eye strain as well.

After dinner was the hotel stay, where the rooms had been graciously outfitted with items from kikki.K’s collection so we could try them out right then! I loved their clean white, blue and gold colour palette, which made them look simultaneously beautiful and very calming, perfect for a little relaxing just before bed. My favourite items were the teapot and teacup, mostly because I love tea and drinking warm things before bed puts me right to sleep!

All in all, it was a wonderful evening concluding with an extremely comfortable stay. Thank you to kikki.K for the great event and The Warehouse Hotel for hosting us! You can find the new collection on the kikki.K website or in physical stores!

Contributing Editor

Hey I'm Daphnie! I suffer from a chronic case of RBF, but I'm actually an easily distracted nerd who once Wiki-surfed my way from researching about the Russian royal family to woolly mammoths and ended up at obscure Aztec gods. Yeah, I'm not sure how that happened either. I regularly visit art stores to cry about expensive art supplies ($13 for a 5ml tube whyyyyy) without buying anything. I write stuff for DC Creative sometimes.